Load Bearing Beams Roth Stokes

The Summer of Spielberg begins with Spielberg’s biggest hit, the classic 1982 alien/divorce family film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.
 
Adjusted for inflation, this is the fourth-highest-grossing movie of all time. Beloved by generations, it is a lot of fun, yes… but it’s also some dark, dark shit. Laci explains why it’s always been so difficult for her to watch, even though she knows how good a movie it is.
 
There is much gushing about puppets. There has maybe never been a better puppet in a movie. And there may have never been three better child actor performances than the brothers and sister in this movie.
 
Next week: Jurassic Park (1993) with our special guests, Kristie & AJ of the In Love With Horror podcast!

 
Watch this episode in full on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dFtaf-8wxjA
 
Time stamps:
00:03:35 — We have a new theme song!
00:05:57 — Our histories with E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
00:15:50 — Pre-movie predictions
00:32:28 — History segment: Development and production of E.T. (the character and the movie)
00:58:15 — In-depth movie discussion
01:42:27 — Final thoughts and star ratings
 
Artwork by Laci Roth.
 
Music by Rural Route Nine. Listen to their album The Joy of Averages on Spotify (https://bit.ly/48WBtUa), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3Q6kOVC), or YouTube (https://bit.ly/3MbU6tC).
 
Songs by Rural Route Nine in this episode:
“Summer of Spielberg” - https://youtu.be/yglAqqLEaoI
“Winston-Salem” - https://youtu.be/-acMutUf8IM  
“Snake Drama” - https://youtu.be/xrzz8_2Mqkg 
“The Bible Towers of Bluebonnet” - https://youtu.be/k7wlxTGGEIQ
 
“Summer of Spielberg” theme song credits:
Words and music written by Matt Stokes
Performed by Wade Hymel (drums/guitar), Laci Roth (vocals), and Matt Stokes (vocals/guitar/bass)
Produced by TJ Barends, Wade Hymel, and Matt Stokes
Engineered and mixed by TJ Barends at Bare Sounds Studio in Ponchatoula, Louisiana
 
Sources:
Spielberg: The First Ten Years by Laurent Bouzereau - https://bit.ly/4bVwS5T 
“Spielberg speaks! Jaws Blu-Ray in the works with no ’digital corrections!’ by Eric Vespe | Ain’t It Cool News, 2011 - https://bit.ly/3VF4MGq 
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 20th Anniversary Special, 2002  - https://imdb.to/3KH1wnv

We're taking the week off as we prepare for the Summer of Spielberg, which starts next Friday (June 14) with an episode about E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. But to hold you over, we have this episode where Matt will take you through some of our favorite moments from our back catalogue.
Thank you for your support of Load Bearing Beams! The listenership has really grown in the past few months and we want to give new listeners a tour of where the podcast has been and where it's going.
Head over to our YouTube channel for bonus stuff that hasn't been on the podcast feed: https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod
Or follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@load.bearing.beams 
 
Time stamps:
02:41 — Clip from episode 56 (The Mummy Returns)
08:55 — Clip from episode 41 (Dude, Where's My Car?) 
19:24 — Clip from episode 20 (The Lost Boys) 
33:54 — Clip from episode 53 (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) 
42:00 — Clip from episode 37 (Little Nicky) 
45:21 — Clip from episode 61 (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) 
51:47 — Clip from episode 52 (Richie Rich) 

Hey folks, here's an audio recording from a TikTok livestream we held to discuss Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge (2001) as a companion to our Romeo + Juliet episode.
Thanks to everyone who attended the stream! You can follow us on TikTok and catch future livestreams at https://www.tiktok.com/@load.bearing.beams 
And we have plenty of good stuff in addition to our regular episodes on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod 
Reminder: No new episode this week. At least not a regular episode. We might have another bonus thing for you this Friday. 
The SUMMER OF SPIELBERG begins on Friday, June 14, with our episode about E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). 

Love me, love me, fish tank you love me. Load Bearing Beams takes you to Verona Beach, America to talk about Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. The year is 1996, and two great business families are feuding in the streets, but that won’t stop our two child protagonists from falling in big-eyed love with each other and hastily getting married to please the Lord.
 
Laci, Matt, and their pal Screen Time Kota (@screentimekota on TikTok) have a lengthy discussion about this candle-heavy movie. It’s beloved by a generation of angsty teens, but does its choice to use Shakespeare’s actual dialogue work on screen? Is young Leonardo DiCaprio’s boyish performance an asset or a fatal miscasting? And how do we feel about all of this as adults who are significantly older than the little babies at the center of the movie? Also, will Laci ever be able to stop making fun of Matt’s English major ass?
 
Next week: We’re taking a week off to prepare for the SUMMER OF SPIELBERG, which begins on June 14 with an episode about E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.
 
Watch this episode in full: https://youtu.be/hiiQoRwIBr8
 
Time stamps:
00:03:35 — Our histories with this movie and Shakespeare in general
00:14:41 — Pre-movie predictions
00:23:03 — History segment: Brief history of William Shakespeare, his play Romeo & Juliet, and career overviews of director Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes
00:34:45 — In-depth movie discussion
01:20:44 — Final thoughts and star ratings
 
Artwork by Laci Roth.
 
Music by Rural Route Nine. Listen to their album The Joy of Averages on Spotify (https://bit.ly/48WBtUa), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3Q6kOVC), or YouTube (https://bit.ly/3MbU6tC).
 
Songs by Rural Route Nine in this episode:
“Winston-Salem” - https://youtu.be/-acMutUf8IM 
“Snake Drama” - https://youtu.be/xrzz8_2Mqkg
“The Bible Towers of Bluebonnet” - https://youtu.be/k7wlxTGGEIQ 
 
Sources:
“Leonardo and Juliet” by Alex Ross | Slate (1996) — https://bit.ly/4bFMZUQ
“Baz Luhrmann Talks ‘Elvis’ with Maureen Down” by Maureen Down | The New York Times (2022) — https://bit.ly/4e2PTEY
 

Matt, Laci, and their unnamed dog are on a quest for as much guzzoline as they can carry in this episode covering one of the all-time great action movies, George Miller’s Mad Max 2 (1981).
 
In this wonderfully weird film that we yanks tend to call The Road Warrior, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) is enlisted against his will by a ragtag band of oil refinery folks in their war against the dread Lord Humungus. It’s kind of like Casablanca, but after the world ends. And Australian.
 
Mad Max is Matt’s favorite movie franchise, so listen up and he’ll tell you how this movie is actually politically poignant and emotionally devastating. A grand adventure indeed!
 
Matt made a six-minute video about how Babe: Pig in the City is George Miller’s most Mad Max movie: https://youtu.be/ah38veX7RSc


Watch this episode in full: https://youtu.be/fEIYAIczSJo
 
Next week: William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) with special guest Screen Time Kota!
 
Time stamps:
00:01:50 — Our history with the Mad Max franchise
00:17:33 — Pre-movie predictions
00:22:46 — History segment: Brief overview of Australian cinema in the ‘70s and ‘80s; overview of director George Miller
00:46:14 — In-depth movie discussion
01:23:23 — Final thoughts and star ratings
 
Artwork by Laci Roth.
 
Music by Rural Route Nine. Listen to their album The Joy of Averages on Spotify (https://bit.ly/48WBtUa), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3Q6kOVC), or YouTube (https://bit.ly/3MbU6tC).
 
Songs by Rural Route Nine in this episode: 
“Your Ambition” - https://youtu.be/ZHudVTCkrQY  
“Winston-Salem” - https://youtu.be/-acMutUf8IM 
“Snake Drama” - https://youtu.be/xrzz8_2Mqkg
“The Bible Towers of Bluebonnet” - https://youtu.be/k7wlxTGGEIQ 
 
Sources:
Not Quite Hollywood - 2009 documentary directed by Mark Hartley
“‘Mad Max’ has lived in George Miller’s head for 45 years. He’s not done dreaming yet” by Jake Coyle | The Associated Press, 2024 - https://bit.ly/3WOVj09
“Myths Shape a Movie from Australia” by Michael Specter | The New York Times, 1982 - https://bit.ly/3yubaqT

Matt and Laci are mysteriously missing, so this episode is brought to you by replacement hosts Sister Anastasia Killian and Friar Jacob Aloysius Clement, who have the required expertise to talk you through the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg vehicle Sister Act. Is it an accurate portrayal of convent life? Do nuns really have this much fun?
 
Anyway, the show has lots of praise for this frankly delightful nun comedy. Obviously Whoopi is a megastar here, but how wonderful is Maggie Smith? Honestly, all of these nuns are terrific, they should star in remakes of other movies. Like, wouldn’t it be great to see Nuns in Wonderland, or The Nuns and the Chocolate Factory, or Nun Transformers: Age of Extinction?
 
Prayers up for Laci and Matt, who we haven’t heard from since all that unpleasantness in Reno.
 
Next week: Mad Max 2 (we Americans know it as The Road Warrior)
 
Want to watch this episode? Catch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5XUj0Pm3MbQ
 
Time stamps:
00:02:32 — Our histories with Sister Act
00:06:10 — Pre-movie predictions
00:09:37 — History segment: Development of Sister Act, from original conception by screenwriter Paul Rudnick to the casting of Bette Midler; career overview of star Whoopi Goldberg
00:30:26 — In-depth movie discussion
01:24:17 — Final thoughts and star ratings
 
Artwork by Laci Roth.
 
Music by Rural Route Nine. Listen to their album The Joy of Averages on Spotify (https://bit.ly/48WBtUa), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3Q6kOVC), or YouTube (https://bit.ly/3MbU6tC).
 
Songs by Rural Route Nine in this episode:
“Winston-Salem” - https://youtu.be/-acMutUf8IM 
“Snake Drama” - https://youtu.be/xrzz8_2Mqkg
“The Bible Towers of Bluebonnet” - https://youtu.be/k7wlxTGGEIQ 
 
Sources:
“Fun With Nuns” by Paul Rudnick | The New Yorker, 2009 - https://bit.ly/4bCDEgq
“Whoopi Goldberg Will Not Shut Up, Thank You Very Much” by Jazmine Hughes | The New York Times, 2022 - https://nyti.ms/3UW1xKd